March 25th, 2018

The Story of Sunshine

It all began with a sports event located in Love's Park, Illinois. It was where I talked with men about personal and societal evolution toward love, overheard young women singing the Harry Potter theme, and where the clouds cleared to make way for a dome of sun, encased in a wall of peace. From our house you drive just over an hour in the direction of Chicago to get to Love's Park. In order to enter the sports complex hosting the event, you have to turn onto Sun Singer way. The first day of the tournament our entire family lounged on the outer edges of turf, and my husband sheltered me from from the rough winds and go-through-your-jacket cold of the early part of the day. By mid afternoon the gaze of the sun was lit with a calm hot blessing, like a steady stream of kisses for all in attendance. I had wanted to go home immediately when we arrived, but stuck it out because DH was so happy to be there, watching our daughter, taking in the milieu. Boy was I glad I did! Watching our daughter circle up with both her teammates and the opposing team in one circle after each match was medicine for my mama heart. Later I learned that they spent the time giving "spirit awards" and sharing what they appreciated about playing each other. My daughter relayed the types of compliments competitors gave each other: "I really enjoyed playing you because your cuts are really good and they caused me to up my game." "You bring great energy to the field." "I liked playing you because you challenged me to really pay attention to my defense." "Your intensity was awesome." The play was collaborative, as well as competitive, and I felt I was watching the future model of humanity take the reins on the field.

The day after the tournament my daughter shared that she kept receiving the message from her intuition that it would be good for us to check out cats at the Humane society. Our family nurtures our children's innate intuition the best we can, and besides, both my daughter and I had been feeling inclined to get a cat for the past few weeks. My husband had the day off, so 4 out of 5 Kwons were able to attend the cat expedition. I knew my oldest would be happy with any loving pet we brought home. She is picky about certain things - but in this one area, I knew she'd likely be head over heels glad about any nice animal. 

When we arrived at the Humane Society, the sun was clearly illuminating everything around us. Wild Turkeys meandered nearby. Once inside the building, I felt led to a certain pathway that led to a particular cat, who looked fearful, sad and vibrated an extremely pure love vibration. Her coat looked like liquid gold and white light had been turned into fur. Her name: Sunshine.

We decided to keep her adoption secret from the oldest to give her a good surprise. She'd had a doozy of a week with her academic workload and had been majorly stressing and feeling tired. Our middle child learned to keep a secret for the first time. And when brought Sunshine home the next day, she didn't even meow the whole entire car ride home. She saved that for the night time. But, just like a newborn, she delighted our hearts before she took away our sleep. It didn't take her too long to warm up to her surroundings. When our oldest came home, we told her to be quiet because we had a surprise for her and that we had brought someone home and they were under the bed. Her face went from downcast to pure delight just like a gentle, sure sunrise on the fabric of human skin, shining out from her eyes, smile and entire self.

Sunshine took a turn in everyone's lap who was home, and happily has taken to joining us for meals. She meows until we bring her plate over to circle up around us. Then she joyfully eats alongside us on the floor.